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Do you like to write? Draw? Take photos? Create exciting works of art? Progeny is the place to have it published. There is still time to submit your work!

Progeny is Defiance College’s literary and art magazine. It has been published annually or bi-annually since 1961. According to Camrin Santchi, Progeny co-editor, “Progeny is a spiritual sister to The Defender, a Defiance College publishing that focuses on the creative works rather than journalism”.

Dr. Engel states, “Submission can be made by students, faculty, staff, and alums of Defiance College.”

“Anything from short stories to poetry of any kind, even photographs and other art. When it comes to visual art, though, submitters need to keep in mind that Progeny no doubt will be printed in black and white, and thus images that rely on color may not work as well” claims Santchi.

There are plans to create a new layout and look for the magazine that is more consistent with the Defiance College brand. Dr. Engel comments that Michaela Hunt is designing a new logo for the magazine.

When asked, some students were unaware of the magazine or were not planning to submit.

“I was not planning on submitting anything, but it does sound interesting and will check it out,” said one student.

Morgan B said she “knows nothing about it.”

When talking to Jess L., she was not planning on submitting anything.

The magazine is expected sometime near the end of the semester.

According to their website, for published submissions, “Progeny takes only first rights and asks to be acknowledged in any re-publication of a work.”

On October 24th, Defiance College set up “A Night Without a Home” which had the biggest turnout to date.

“We’re appreciative of service leaders and you could tell the coaches had encouraged the athletic teams to attend,” Alesia Yakos-Brown, Associate Professor of Social Work at Defiance College, said. “This was probably the most students we’ve ever had.”

Yakos-Brown is the organizer of “A Night Without a Home”. “The main goal is to raise awareness for homelessness,” said Yakos-Brown. There were several events that were scheduled that evening, such as soup kitchen, tent city tours, opening remarks by President Richanne Mankey and Mayor Michael McCann, Q&A for formerly homeless, and trick or treat.

In a brochure provided by Yakos-Brown from PATH, Partnership Assistance to the Homeless elaborates more on what goals were. “A Night Without A Home provides an opportunity to discuss, think, and learn about homelessness through several interactive events and activities sponsored by The PATH Center of Northwestern Ohio Community.”

PATH talks about what the event did for the homeless. “Tents will be displayed on the front lawn of Defiance College’s campus to represent the homeless individuals and families who received emergency shelter services from The PATH Center.”

“You could fill five football stadiums with the homeless population of the United States.” Another fact that was provided was, “every year, 2.5 million children experience homelessness. That’s almost the entire population of Chicago.”

Defiance College’s 3rd annual Day of Giving will commence on March 14th where alumni, friends, and faculty and staff are encouraged to donate for the upcoming academic year.

Michelle Tinker, the interim director of development, describes the Day of Giving as a “24-hour period where alumni, friends of the college, and faculty and staff come together to make their annual gift”. Tinker establishes that the benefits that alumni experienced while they were students enable them to appreciate the ability to give back to the college. The Day of Giving helps fund scholarships and other programs on the campus such as athletics or the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity. Tinker discussed the desire to create a scholarship in honor of a late trustee and alumni, Tim Leuzarder. This scholarship fund collected a total of $6,682 from 25 different donors.

The event has grown from Phonathon, an event where members of the college would call to check-in with alumni and verify addresses and phone numbers. Following verification, the alumni would then be asked to donate financially. Tinker explained that with the changing in how people manage technology and how they respond to phone calls, the online platform for donations is the best way to stick with the times The online platform allows for those donating to choose where the money goes and to match donations made by others. The platform also allows for the sharing and advertising of the link to social media.

If interested in donating, visit www.defiance.edu/give and help fund programs and advancements that are being made to Defiance College.

UPDATE TO THE STORY: Thanks to generous donors, Defiance College was able to reach and surpass its goal of collecting $60,000 in donations. The Day of Giving accumulated a sum of $63,188 and that is only what was donated online. This sum does not include the donations that are sent in by mail or otherwise.

Defiance College is welcoming the Institute for Pre-Health and Wellness Studies to its campus this semester with hopes of bettering the college lives of its students.

In a newsletter similar to the one that will be sent to students soon, Dean Bridgette Winslow describes that the Institute’s purpose is to “provide prospective and current students with additional support in advising, career planning and graduate school acceptance”. The Institute is In an interview, Winslow established that she has a special place in her heart for student engagement and plans on working closely with both students and faculty as extra support to better the educational track of the students. The Institute will also work to share the number of opportunities there are for students interested in the medical field, as described in the newsletter.

The newsletter details five goals for the Institute including recruiting students for health and wellness studies, increasing retention, increasing research and internship opportunities, funding academic programming and developing resources for research through fundraising and grant writing efforts. Dean Winslow has already started working with students in an effort to move forward to these goals. She will also be working closely with undecided and freshman students in order to help start their careers on the right foot.

Winslow explains that she wants to start portfolios for students as they enter their freshman year and work to better set their foundation for the professional world. Winslow states this is necessary in order to “set yourself apart from another applicant”. Freshman will work with both their advisors for this goal. Then sophomore year, Winslow wants the students the Institute works with to start looking in the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity, potential research and internship opportunities. Along with this, the students will start to prep for Graduate school tests such as the MCAT or the GRE. Junior year the attention is more on developing the resume through more learning opportunities. Finally, in the senior year, the Institute will focus on developing interviewing skills and preparing to move into the job force.

With academic programming, the Institute is hosting and viewing and discussion of the documentary Icarus, a documentary on athletic doping and the Russian Olympics scandal at the Sochi Olympic Games. The newsletter, that will be sent to students shortly, details other academic programming opportunities that will be offered by the Institute.

Winslow states her biggest personal goal for the Institute is to “grow the number of pre-health and wellness students that we have on campus. I want to get out and expose the high schools to all of the programs we have and the quality of those programs”. She states, following meeting with the Molecular Biology students on-campus, that “I was floored at the level of compassion the students had and the passion that they had for their field”. She wants to further develop this compassion, that she states “comes from our faculty” and show the world just how great the programs are here at Defiance.

Dean Bridgette Winslow is a Northwest Ohio native, graduating high school in Bryan. The mother of three graduated with her undergrad at the University of Toledo in Sports Administration and later with her Masters there in Guidance and Counseling, focusing on athletes and mental health. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration at UT as well. Following a period of living in Minnesota with her family, she was made aware of the job offer for the Institute of Pre-Health and Wellness. She had previously worked at Adrian College as a registrar and later as the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs under Dr. Agnes Caldwell, Defiance’s current Dean of Academic Affairs. Following a job opportunity opening up, Dr. Caldwell contacted her about applying. Dean Winslow stated in her interview that she has a strong love for student engagement and the inspiring stories that Defiance’s students have to share stating, “the stories of our students are phenomenal”. Dean Winslow’s office is located across from the Registrar’s office in the Serrick Center.

(Defiance, OH) This year, The Defiance College Social Work Organization is hosting its 19th annual Empty Bowls event. Empty Bowls is an event in which areas around the city prepare and donate varieties of food for people to eat.

The event is set to take place on March 14, at the Knights of Columbus Hall on 111 Elliot Road from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

The goal of the Empty Bowls event is to raise funds that will be donated to the Defiance PATH Center (Partnership Assistance to the Homeless) on 1939 E Second Street. This local center focuses on fighting hunger and homelessness.

Susan Cheeseman, PATH program manager, stated “Last year, the PATH program served approximately 8,000 meals. the annual Empty Bowls donation is the key to the center of being able to offer a variety of healthy meals.”

The food will be served in handmade bowls. These bowls were created by Defiance College alumni, Brandon Knott, of It’s Knotts Pottery in Continental, Ohio.

Adult tickets for this event are $12 and it includes one of the handmade bowls. For children under 10, the tickets are $10. Tickets are at a discounted price of $8 for Defiance College students.

These tickets can be purchased from the Social Work Organization. “Students are able to show up earlier than others,” stated Salisbury.

Meals such as soups, breads and different kinds of desserts will be prepared. The meals will be free for everyone who purchases a ticket.

Professor Salisbury is the head of the DC Social Work Organization. She has hosted four Empty Bowls events and this will be her fifth one. “At this event, you are able to eat all you want,” stated Salisbury. “Last year we raised $6,000 for the PATH Center.” All of these proceeds were donated to the PATH Center.

Students looking to share their academic experiences, April 9-10th of the school year, Defiance will put together the annual McMaster School for Advancing Humanity Symposium and Academic Colloquium!

During the annual Academic Colloquium, students will be spread amongst the campus in Dana Hall, Serrick, and the Pilgrim Library sharing the important academic experiences they have gained during the current school year.

Senior student Paige Sickmiller spoke on what she gained during the presentations last year, “I learned a lot and I’ve grown as a public speaker. I recommend doing it at least once if you ever get the chance”.

During the two days of presentations, students are encouraged to present either orally or using poster boards. Each presentation will offer different experiences allowing the audience to understand what opportunities are offered, being a Defiance College student. The theme behind this year’s Colloquium is “The Question of Individual Liberties as Critical to Improving the Human Condition”.

Before presenting, students must choose between presenting orally or with a poster, or students may work with groups and present on a panel.

Oral presentations are normally given with power-points allowing students to show examples of everything they accomplished through each slide. Poster presentations don’t allow as many picture examples are oral presentations, but they give the chance of explaining more concrete details. A panel presentation will host multiple students sitting at a table presenting on a college trip that the honors program takes and answering questions.

“My poster presentations go 10xs better,” said Paige. “I get to research my questions and format my findings in a creative way. Plus, I get to read straight from my poster and others can read it so I don’t panic as much.”

To be able to present during this day you have to complete the application process of choosing to present verbally or through posters, choose a faculty member that can help advise you on your project, and with the approval of your faculty member, you submit the application to McMaster Symposium and Academic Colloquium Application (if a student chooses to do more than one presentation, submit application for each). If you would like to share your work through a poster presentation, allow your faculty advisor to send the completed poster to Brad Harsha, Assistant Dean of the McMaster School (bharsha@defiance.edu).

Brad shared, “It truly is a day to celebrate the academic success of our students.”

Dates to remember for this event are March 25th (poster application deadline) and April 10th (presentation day). For more information visit defiance.edu/mcmaster/honor/symposium.html or contact Brad Harsha.

Approaching midterms, Commencement is only three short months away. Dean Agnes Caldwell, Vice President for Academic Affairs, discusses important information graduating seniors should know before May 4th comes around.

The day before graduation on Friday, May 3rd there will be a ceremony practice held in the Weaner Center. Dean Caldwell explained this day saying, “Students will practice going through the ceremony, so they feel comfortable with the order of events, seating, and where things are.”

Following the practice will be the Senior Bash. “The Senior Bash is meant to celebrate the students and their time here at Defiance College,” said Dean Caldwell.

Michele Tinker, Interim Director of Development, explained the Senior Bash saying, “At this event, we’ll have finger foods, photo ops, beverages (adult and soft drinks), music, and the graduates will receive a commemorative gift.” This is a way to relax and celebrate with other students and professors before the student’s final departure from Defiance College.

Saturday, May 4th at 11 am Commencement will begin in the Weaner Center on Defiance College’s Campus with around 100 students graduating.

The day of Commencement, students need to be dressed in their caps and gowns before the start of the ceremony at 11 am. Students will be able to pick up their cap and gown from the registrar’s office in late April.

Before Commencement officially begins, the Baccalaureate will be held. During that time the Invocation, Responsive Reading and Meditation are performed, assisted by Rev. Jim Brehler.

During Commencement, one of the honorary speakers this year will be Dr. Terry Boyd, a Defiance College alum. Dean Caldwell stated, “because of his hard work he was awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2017.”

After the ceremony, there will be a reception held at 1:30 pm with refreshments available.

Family and friends are encouraged to join in the Commencement celebrations. Tickets for this event are free, and seats are first come, first serve.